Yes, we have a duty to resist, but…

I’ve avoided commenting on the iconoclastic vandals/ rioters for at least three reasons.

1. I’ve been hoping that there’d be some point to to their violence – or that at least there’d be some accord with the peaceful protesters’ righteous demand for reform. Given how bad our tribal information sources are these days, I was hoping that something favorable would emerge about their motives. …Other than burning Bibles and the usual socialist/communist self-delusions, of course.
2. Quite opposite the manipulative canard we’re told about the efficacy of peaceful protest, there has always been, in any real social movement, a yin-yang duo of intellect and force, peaceful protest and violence.  For example, Mohandas Gandhi versus Rash Behari Bose, or Martin Luther King versus Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.  I am personally very anti-violence in my personality as well as political ideology and ethos.  But…change is necessary.  Our government is horrifically corrupt.
3. Truth be told, I’m a bit of an iconoclast myself.

But as of now, the violence has only served to unfairly discredit and distract from the peaceful protesters’ goals.  Whether by design or stupidity is pretty much the same yield…the violent destruction has been absurdly, mindlessly destructive as well as counterproductive.

On the other hand I’m deeply conflicted.

I feel like a hypocrite promoting peaceful revolution by nullification, change of heart and mind, personal responsibility, civil disobedience, tribal law/ election reform and innumerable political campaigns, yet silently wishing for the other half I know is necessary for actual societal and cultural change.

I’m not aware of anybody saying it better than former slave Frederick Douglass.  Here’ just a few snippets of a speech we should all read in its entirety:

“The general sentiment of mankind is that a man who will not fight for himself, when he has the means of doing so, is not worth being fought for by others, and this sentiment is just.  For a man who does not value freedom for himself will never value it for others, or put himself to any inconvenience to gain it for others.  Such a man, the world says, may lie down until he has sense enough to stand up.  It is useless and cruel to put a man on his legs, if the next moment his head is to be brought against a curbstone.”

“Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow.”

The following puts a sharp point on today’s circumstances as contrasted with better-grounded movements:

“I am aware that the insurrectionary movements of the slaves were held by many to be prejudicial to their cause.  This is said now of such movements at the South.  The answer is that abolition followed close on the heels of insurrection in the West Indies, and Virginia was never nearer emancipation than when General Turner kindled the fires of insurrection at Southampton.”

…And my favorite, most-often cited part:

“Power concedes nothing without a demand.  It never did and it never will.  Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.  The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

The rioters’ absence of such intellect, clarity and purpose reveals them to be self-immolating fools; either as tools at the whim of others, or as brutish embodiment of dysfunctional minds.

But I’d better be clear on something…it’s not only black people who should be concerned about our government.  Our culture is sick from the bottom-up as well as top-down.  Inequality under law hurts everybody, ultimately – even the people who’re now draining the lives of the lower castes for their benefit.

You can say whatever you want about our Founding Fathers and past generations’ American Dream – we never did anybody’s vision correctly.   But where we’re headed is disastrous by anybody’s ideology, or hopes for tomorrow.

My hopes, as always, are for a public epiphany that actually acts-out a better culture.  But as always, my hopes greatly exceed my expectations.
Sigh…

I’ll end with another excerpt of Douglass’s speech:

“Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning.  They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.“

We could fix it in a Single Day

But voters, as always, must choose

Freedom, IN – Many feel that our “Major Party” choices on Election Day have been getting worse and worse, while the general condition of our society and individual lives seems to be devolving toward calamity.

That’s true, of course.

But we could fix it if only we’d acknowledge the problem, admit who freely chose this, and realize who’s got the power to turn this around. The fix itself is simple enough, and mostly written-down already.

The most important three steps are:

• Stand down our military-industrial complex and global imperialism.
• Monetary/banking reform.
• End the cronyism/corruption culture.

That’s in reverse order, unfortunately; because as congressmen I could address the first two listed only after voters take a stand against the recent (since the 1970’s), self-appointed and irretrievably corrupt, “Two Party System”…by electing me!

Only voters can topple the two-party-in-name-only, crony network, which has become little more than a front, distraction, protection and marketing group for the finance and militarism elites who run the world behind the Two Party Firewall.

So before we can nullify the unjust, profligate, unconstitutional judgments, agencies, laws and actions which produced the welfare cliff, the horrific cost of healthcare, oppressive lawless bureaucracy, and of course endless war and ever-more militarization, voters must first say something to the ruling elites that they’ve not heard in a hundred years:

…NO!

The other 8^th district candidates have no intention or ability to fix the mess they choose to represent. So, first, voters must vote against that corrupt monstrosity. Yes, it’s good to vote against what’s wrong. To say otherwise is a terrible misunderstanding of the whole point of elections; and that is for peaceful revolution. If they feel that they can vote for me, that’d be great. But first, voters must fire the Two Party System!

After voters fire that shot heard ‘round the world, we can talk about other reforms including:

• Term Limits
• Rule of Law
• End “earmarks” (pork)
• End special classes, special deals for special people – equality for all at long last
• Sunset provision/amendment to refine and reduce the number of laws so that our rules are:
  • Few enough to actually know
  • Simple enough to actually obey
  • Important enough to enforce without exceptions or special classes

None of the preceding is ideological, untested or even new. Most of it is already law.

It’s all in voters’ power to set things right. But first, in order to use their power, they must understand that they’ve always had it, and used it to get to where we are today. And for that to happen, they need to be better informed of their choices, and how elections have been working up to now.

Liberty or Bust!

Andrew Horning

Libertarian for 8^th District US House of Representatives

Facebook www.facebook.com/HorningForCongress/

How We Fix This Mess

I like talking ideology. But right now, talking about socialism versus fascism versus libertarianism versus the Two Party System is like discussing paint colors while your house is on fire.

Forget ideology; that’s not the problem.

CORRUPTION!

Corruption is the problem. Almost everything else is just a symptom of that.

Let’s be clear about what our nation’s “corruption” really is. We have an unconstitutional (illegal) ruling class that’s intentionally violating our most fundamental laws (legal, moral, economic) to fill their pockets though it harms the rest of us.

That’s called crime when any of the rest of us do it.  When it’s done abusing power in violation of oaths of office and causing economic distress and pointless death it really ought to be called treason.

And that treasonous ruling class is mostly not the people you see on the ballot, or numbly pontificating on C-SPAN.  Heck no.  Follow the money that we’ve been voting for.  You’ll see the people who pull strings from behind a curtain.

There isn’t anybody alive who can’t be threatened, blackmailed or otherwise manipulated by the dark and twisted forces that control our “intelligence” agencies, for example.

We can’t determine to what degree and in what ways we’re being harmed because so many  of our rulers systematically and habitually lie to us about everything. So it may not be off the table to include mass murder in the list of crimes.

The unregulated militarized monster we only call “government” is really a crime ring that’s “too big to fail.”

So let’s fix it.

Here’s how:

1. Stop voting for it! And by “it,” I of course mean the global crony network whose puppets we call The Two Party System.  No, I don’t mean just Democrats and Republicans.  I mean the system of cronies and unfair legal advantages that’s more corporate than it is political.  Don’t give this monstrous mob your approval on Election Day. And do NOT, by default, grant its wishes by staying home on Election Day. Anybody left alone and unchallenged with unchecked power for too long becomes corrupt, and almost all of us have been blowing electoral kisses to the same Powers That Be for over a hundred years nonstop. STOP THAT!!

2. Vote against it. Yes, we’re supposed to vote against people. Remember, this is revolt with your vote! When your house is on fire, you need to kill the fire, not swap it for another.  So first, fire the crooks! Vote for anything or anybody but the puppet show you know to be corrupt!

Remember, even the very best Ds and Rs (and there are some great people in those parties – like Thomas Massie, or Justin Amash, for example) are powerless against this mess without more allies, and your help.  They cannot fix their party, or the people who control it.  YOU must vote against all of that!

Our nation’s founders understood that elections are messy, corrupt and problematic in themselves; so elections’ purpose is very focused – they’re for peaceful revolution. That’s why we vote; so we don’t have to shoot politicians the way our founders did.

3. Use your vote as a weapon, or somebody else might.  Seriously.  It actually happens that people who don’t vote often show up voting…even after they’re dead.  If you think staying home is a protest, you don’t understand how bad things have gotten.

4. Then, and only then, is a discussion of ideology and ‘isms something better than a time and energy wasting distraction.

In summary: Vote as though it’s war! Because, of course, it is.

 

It’s time to redirect our history

Let’s say that in your garage there was a trash can filled with greasy rags into which you’d carelessly thrown a cigarette, and it caught fire. Let’s further assume that you didn’t use the fire extinguisher that was already in your hand. Instead, you put that down and called 911.

OK, so you didn’t just watch the fire grow into a problem while you waited for the fire department to show up.

No, you called your whole family into the garage. They all put down the fire extinguishers that were in their hands so that they could cup their faces and wail as the fire started to spread out from the garage, and to the house.

The firemen arrived very quickly though. You were relieved when they handed you the questionnaire asking what items are most important to you.

You and your family chatted about family pictures, furniture and whatnot. There was some quibbling over whether to check off “family pets” because only your daughter liked the cat. And your son started a minor conflagration over his Legos.

But the firemen were very patient as you finally handed back the checklist and they set to work, efficiently and very bravely carrying out precious items (including that darned cat) as your garage, your house, your garden shed and both cars burned into char, rubble, slag and smoldering goo.

So there you are. You have a pile of some of your stuff, and that’s good. But now you wonder if you really filled out that checklist correctly. You just remembered that old Auntie Ethel was in the spare bedroom. And what about all the cash in the mattress?

Those weren’t even on the check list!

And (something nagging the back of your mind)…isn’t there some other way this could have turned out?

You looked down your street. Both ways. You see that all your neighbors are also muttering over and kicking through their smoking wreckage and pile of stuff.

Then you all share a hearty laugh.

Oh well. C’est la vie.

But that’s not how I feel about this absurd situation at all.  I was reminded of my frustrations when I got an email from my congressman that contained just such a fireman’s checklist with this message:

“Please take a moment to let me know which issues are of interest to you and indicate your willingness to receive updates from my office.”

What the H, my fellow Americans, are we doing?

Rome is burning. Your kids’ future is on fire. And you’re picking at little bits of 2^nd Amendment here, taxes there…should we keep security and uncheck the liberty box?

Dammit, people, wake up.

There is only one problem worth discussing; and that is that your government is totally off the rails.  It’s breaking fundamental laws left and right, and has been doing so, increasingly, unsustainably, for decades.

We’d have none of the biggest troubles of today if our politicians would obey their oaths of office and obey the constitutions, both state and federal, as written.

If they’d quit breaking the law – or, more appropriately, if we’d quit letting them get away with their lawbreaking, our taxes would be a tiny fraction of what they are now, we’d have better services, more jobs, opportunity, liberty, security, justice, health, education and welfare…and we’d have none of the mindless, foolish, deadly destructive and alwaysneverending wars that have sapped our national soul of its bravery, generosity and common sense.

Dammit, people, wake up!

You can put out the fire any time you want to. You can fix it all overnight, in a day…any time you choose. It’s not just up to you…this IS you.

Our government perfectly reflects We The People. It’d dissolve into nothing if we could behave like we should. It’s instead grown into a monster on the fuel of our ignorance, sloth, jealousy, fear and hatred.

Some of us have awakened. We intend to speak out on July 4.

Is there any better way to celebrate our founders’ sacrifices than to protest what we’ve done to their constitutions?

Wake up and join us on July 4, from 11am to 1pm for a parade around the Indianapolis Circle, a march to the Indiana Statehouse, and a rally in support of the constitutional rule of law that we want back.

Check here to follow details: https://www.facebook.com/events/278932375576252/?ref=22

Distorted news is bad news, but better than no news!

I know that major media are financially squeezed and short-staffed.  I know that most of those remaining are the left-of-Lenin J-school acolytes.  But there is no excuse for twisted, biased and just-flat-wrong reporting.

I wrote this in response to one newspaper’s faulty reporting.  Please write and send off your own.  We need to get the media on our side.  Currently, they’re on the other side, you know…

 

There was no “property tax protest” on July 4.

It’s true enough that some people (not enough) are still mad about unconstitutional property taxes.  This may have motivated about five of the fifty who showed up on the Governor’s Mansion lawn in the pouring rain.  But tax policy was never billed as any part of the purpose of this year’s Independence Day protest.  In fact, in all five press releases, two radio spots and dozens of emails and internet postings related to this event, I specifically insisted that we were protesting our politicians’ defiance of state and federal constitutions, and not just a specific tax policy.  Politicians’ illegal abuse of power is what created our curent problems with debt, spending, education, prices, jobs and, OK, property taxes.  Politicians are breaking crucial, protective laws, in other words, and we were protesting lawless lawmakers, or what I call anarchy.

The disease is ungoverned government.  That’s what we were protesting.  It’s wrong to report just one symptom like property tax when that wasn’t the core issue last year either.  Last summer’s popular “Tea Party” protests that followed were solely about property tax.  And yes, I first advocated constitutionally eliminating property tax back in 1998 and haven’t changed my tune on that subject.  But I never had anything to do with a “property tax protest.” 

We have much more serious threats to our life, liberty and property.

While the rest of us are tightening our belts and surrendering our rights to keep them fed and happy, our politicians are engorging themselves on money and power with no end but total collapse in sight.  It is of course your choice what you want to say about what really happened on July 4.  It’s your paper.  But I hope you offer me the opportunity to set things right.

Constitutions are the laws that protect us from politicians.  Politicians, by their nature, break those laws when we let them.  It’s time we say “whoa” and end the anarchy.

Our protest was really just one, simple, basic plea: It’s time for politicians to honor their oaths of office and obey written laws, as written.  If you’d like to read those laws, they’re all posted at my campaign website, www.horningforgovernor.com 

 

Well, it certainly did rain…

The weather was about as bad as it could be on Independence Day.  Unseasonably cool, with the low, misty clouds and kind of rain that you suspect will last forever…I’m surprised we had as many hardy souls turn up as did on Friday morning. 

To all those who showed up (maybe as many as 50 by some media reports), I can’t thank you enough.  I know that I didn’t thank you enough on Friday.

Thank you.  Thank you from the soggy depths of my heart.

Please know that we accomplished a good part of the mission.  We got some media coverage!

Some of it was accurate; some of it was lies from the tongue of Satan.  But it really is like they say; any media is good media. 

At least people can see that there are options, and that there are people speaking on their behalf.  Even people watching the most biased reports can see that there are those among us who are not satisfied with the status quo.  And that’s a good thing.

…And we’re just getting started.

Well, anyway, thank you.  I thank those that showed up, and I thank those who read these words.

Liberty or Bust!

Quick Note about July 4 Freedom Rally

It may rain.  This is Indiana, after all.  But don’t doubt that I’ll be driving all the way from Freedom, Indiana to be at the Governor’s Mansion on North Meridian just north of 46^th Street at 10am.  I’m bringing my family and a box of Horning For Governor T-shirts. 

No, this rally isn’t about my candidacy.  It’s about you and your choices.

Let’s be clear on this:  You cannot delegate your life to politicians.  You have choices to make.  You tried letting politicians handle the “Property Tax Reform” issue, and look at what happened.  Political spending is up, taxes are up, prices are up, and you are still, in the minds of politicians, serfs.

If you want change right here, right now, you have to vote for it.  There is no shortcut, and no other way.  You must change what you’ve been doing if you want a different result.

What other choice is there?

Well, I suppose you can send me money J

Anyway, I’ll be there tomorrow.  I know lots of others will be there too.  I’m not going to say very much, since over the last fifteen years, I’ve already said what I have to say.  And, I am happy to report, reinforcements are here at last, fighting the same fight.

So others will speak, and you can speak out too. 

I think we’re finally coming to a consensus. 

The priced of oil by itself is not the issue.  Tax policy isn’t the issue.  Public funding to the Colts or mall builders or foreign companies isn’t the issue.  Illegal immigration isn’t the issue.  Rising crime and poverty and imprisonment and loss of homes aren’t the core issues either.  They’re all just symptoms.

The problem, the disease, the issue at hand and the heart of the matter is ungoverned government.  Power without limits.  Anarchy in an $800 suit.

And it’s time we put a leash on that monster.

Join us.  What better way could there be to honor the sacrifices of our forefathers?

Just come out and say it, for goodness sake

For years now I’ve been called a “perennial,” “frequent” and even “habitual” candidate by people who won’t just come out and say what they mean.  

The fact, however, is that I have not run for office nearly as many times as most of our congressmen, senators, judges, dog catchers, etc.  

And yet do we call Richard Lugar a “perennial candidate?”  

Certainly not.  We call him “honorable.”

What the perennial, frequent and habitual cynics, blatherers, bloggers and “journalists” mean by their “perennial” sophistry is that I am a loser.  I wish they’d come out and say it.

George Bush may be destroying America, but he’s a winner.  I may be trying to set things right, but I’m a loser.  

Say it.  

Those who spring onto the scene with fame, money, power and success are winners.  The poor underdogs fighting for liberty and justice for all …are quite obviously losers.

This is fact.  Why can’t these shadow-dodging anklebiters just stand up straight and say what they mean?  Why can’t they boldly and honestly stand for their own principles (whatever they are) as if they really believe in something?

If they want me to quit, then why can’t they say so?  If they want to poke fun at me, then is it so hard to do it with some intelligence?  It’s not like there’s nothing to work with:

For twelve years I’ve stuck my neck on the block with political speaking, writing and campaigning.  I switched parties …twice.  In 2000 I had two million people vote against me in a single day.  I’ve gained so much weight I now have my own gravitational field that holds my cellphone in orbit just out of my reach.  I even grew a beard. 

And yet I hear little substantive criticism of me, my thoughts, my looks…I was instead called a “perennial candidate” on just my third attempt at public office!

What is that? 

If at first you don’t succeed…you’re a “perennial?”

Can’t these people find a better attack? 

Here’s something to play with:

Once again I’m going to go protest ungoverned government on July 4 at 10am at the Governor’s Mansion in Indy.  The last time we protested, we lost.  The politicians won.  That happens a lot.  Our government is ungoverned and this resulting anarchy is collapsing precisely because the myopic power-mad keep winning, and those who’d put them on a leash keep losing.

But in my serial, perennial, frequent and habitual fashion, I’m going to keep opposing those jerks.  I won’t be alone.

I have protested alone before.  I’ve protested with just a few.  In 2005 my July 4 protest gathered only about 25.  Last year, we had a lot more.

OK, we’ll probably lose again.  The “winners” will probably stick it to us even harder as this state and nation swirls down the drainpipes of history.  Our society will collapse with winners at the helm.  That’s how history works, you know.

But maybe we’ll not collapse just yet.  Maybe there is something to the notion of “persistence.”  And maybe there’s a corollary to “evil reigns when good people do nothing.”  Maybe when more people figure out what’s really happening, we’ll have enough people on our side that the losers will become the winners, which would make us all winners in justice.

But go ahead.  Call me a loser.  Call all of us embattled underdog protesters losers.  I won’t mind.  

I’ll be in the best company.

That is fact.

… Where’s the Relief?

Who: Friends of Liberty and Justice for All 

What: July 4 Celebration, as properly done

When: Friday, 4 July, 2008 from 10-11am

Where: In front of the Indiana Governor’s Mansion at 4750 N. Meridian, Indianapolis

Contact: Andy Horning; andrewhorning@hotmail.com

 

 July 4 Done Proper

 

Eleven score and twelve years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that politicians must be kept on a constitutional leash.

Yet now we’re engaged in that ancient battle of politicians against their own citizens.  It’s been exactly a year since our property tax protest made national news.  Now sales taxes are up, property taxes are up, spending is up, debts are out of control…what have we accomplished with the protests last year?  What did our founders accomplish with their blood, sweat and tears?  Certainly, King George never taxed Americans a fraction of today’s load.

It is time to turn up the wick and make this July 4 something even more memorable than the last.

We are not interested in just tax policy any more – even eliminating property tax isn’t enough.  We are not going to merely remove a few entrenched politicians. 

No, we intend nothing less than to govern our government by proven, written standards.  It is time to demand that all of our politicians obey the laws that protect us from them.  It is time for the full restoration of the contracts and freedoms that made this nation great.

We will demand that our politicians obey constitutions as written.  No “interpretations,” no ifs, ands or buts.

In other words, we resolve that our heroic, patriotic dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

###

4 July Done Proper

Do you want to celebrate 4 July in a way that’d do our founders proud? 

It’s been a year since our national-news-making tax protest on the Governor’s lawn, and we’re worse off than ever.  Our politicians have strayed even further from the laws that protect us from them (the constitutions). 

So this time, we’re not going to be distracted by the tax policy sub-issue.  We’ll no longer nibble at the branches of the problem of lawbreaking lawmakers.  We’re not going to fuss over symptoms – we aim to cure the disease of ungoverned government.

We will demand Rule of Law under Constitutions.  We will demand that our politicians obey the constitutions, as written.  No “interpretations,” no ifs, ands or buts.

Same place as last year …the Governor’s Mansion on North Meridian in Indianapolis from around 10 to 11am.

Contact me at andrewhorning@hotmail.com if you’re interested in making history.  Again.